The Institutionalized Gospel

What happens when the Gospel of Jesus becomes subservient to the Church? What happens when the Church decides how it will use the Gospel, as if the Gospel is a servant of the Church? What happens is that the Gospel of Jesus is domesticated, tamed, institutionalized, and neutered of its power to save and transform. My fear is that local churches have placed and are always in danger of placing themselves in the driver’s seat, informing the Gospel (so to speak) what it does and does not have the freedom to do in the life of the Church, rather than allow the Gospel of Christ to confront sin in the Church and bring about repentance and renewed faith and alter direction and transform hearts and minds. The Church is to allow itself to be continually reshaped and reformed by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel of Jesus, just as the Gospel reshapes and reforms us as individuals. The Gospel never changes…but the Church is always changing, from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:16-18).

Discipleship - Gospel = Self-Righteousness

Here is Jerry Bridges from The Discipline of Grace (p.78,79) on our tendency towards legalism and self-righteousness as we are seeking to follow Jesus:

"When I was first introduced to the idea of Christian discipleship, I was given a list of seven spiritual disciplines I should practice every day - things such as a daily quiet time, Bible study, Scripture memorization, and prayer. All of those disciplines were very helpful to me, and I am grateful for every one of them. They formed the foundation for my spiritual growth. However, while learning those disciplines I came to believe that my day-to-day relationship with God depended on how faithfully I performed them. No one actually told me that God's approval of me was based on my performance. Still, I developed a vague but real impression that God's smile or frown depended on whether or not I did my spiritual exercises. The challenge to be faithful in my quiet time, while good in itself, probably contributed to this impression."

Being the church

Have you ever looked at going to church on Sunday morning, going to a small group, going to hang out with and be with the church as being just "one more thing" on your schedule. When it feels like a chore or a duty. Or, sometimes we anticipate and look forward to these very same things because we enjoy them, we see friends, etc. We tend to fluctuate between these 2 poles of enjoying "church stuff" or simply dutifully taking part in them. But the church is neither something merely to be enjoyed nor is it simply one more thing we ought to do. The church is who we are! Being the church, not going to church, is the activity of Christians. We are to BE the church to one another - on Sunday mornings, at community group, in conversations, over email, during meals together - we are to BE the church. I believe that this fundamental misunderstanding of who we are in Christ robs us of much joy and makes the life Christ has given us seem burdensome. But when we understand that church is not something we do, but rather it is something God has made us in Christ, this relieves the burden of duty and allows us to experience the joy of Christ in us and in one another. This is something I have been thinking a lot about, and so you may see subsequent blogs revolving around this theme of BEING the church.